Find the nine mathematical words hidden in the love story below. The last letters of the hidden words form an anagram of the name of a famous mathematician.

Is love at first sight fact or fiction? Trudi Gittins first met Lee Smith at a popular cafe. She engaged him in useless small talk but offered genuine signs that she fancied him. She told him that she liked to read Dickens and preferred sombre rather than gleeful parties. He said he bought a brand new car each year as it helped him relax. Is love in the air for Trudi and Lee?

A Mathematics Lesson Starter Of The Day

A new starter for a new (northern hemisphere) academic year. Something quite different as a settling activity before the main part of your lesson. Something that might capture the interest of young people not expecting this kind of start to a mathematics lesson. Something to wake up the memories of the mathematical concepts the words relate to. Please let us all know if your pupils manage to do this activity without any of the words being revealed. Enjoy!

Pippa Tyler, Beaminster School, Dorset

I set this activity with my Year 10 Set 4 and Year 11 Set 1. They both loved it. The Year 10 class found about half of the words with no help but Year 11 found all 9 and then had great fun trying to unravel the anagram with some interesting names produced!! They did succeed in finding the famous mathematician and then we spent some time finding out what he had done for Maths. A really different starter; please can we have more like this.

Chloe Sheppard, Newcastleton

This was great if it showed the answers. Don't know whether it was just me who couldn't figure it out. 7 out of 10.

[Transum: The answers to all of the Starters, online exercise and puzzles are available lower down the page but only appear when signed in]

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Answer

Descartes

The cartesian coordinate system was named after René Descartes who was a famous mathematician and philosopher. He is credited as the father of analytical geometry, the bridge between algebra and geometry.

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Hello World

You are buying a (driverless) car. One vehicle is programmed to save as many lives as possible in a collision. Another promises to prioritize the lives of its passengers. Which do you choose?

Welcome to the age of the algorithm, the story of a not-too-distant future where machines rule supreme, making important decisions – in healthcare, transport, finance, security, what we watch, where we go even who we send to prison. So how much should we rely on them? What kind of future do we want?

Hannah Fry takes us on a tour of the good, the bad and the downright ugly of the algorithms that surround us. In Hello World she lifts the lid on their inner workings, demonstrates their power, exposes their limitations, and examines whether they really are an improvement on the humans they are replacing. more...

Teacher, do your students have
access to computers?Do they have iPads or Laptops in Lessons?

Whether your students each have a TabletPC, a Surface or a Mac,
this activity lends itself to eLearning (Engaged Learning).